How This Isn’t An Out-Take From “Slap Shot” Is Beyond Me
I can’t explain it, so take a read of the incident from the Western College Hockey blog:
Farmington high school (Minn.) held a 2-1 lead over Chaska high school with just over three minutes remaining in the third period of their game on Thursday night when the truly bizarre happened.
Farmington senior goalie Austin Krause retrieved a puck behind his net, skated to the crease and put the puck in his net. Krause then proceeded to remove his gloves, and while skating off the ice, turned to his bench, flipped them off and gave them a salute before exiting the ice. Here is video of the incident: (video is from a cell phone, and not the highest quality...)
Farmington would give up a power play goal later in regulation and end up losing the game by a score of 3-2. Krause’s motivations for what has to be one of the stranger incidents you’ll ever see in any sport are unclear, though rumors seem to indicate that Krause, who was a senior playing on Farmington’s Senior Night, was upset at losing out on playing time in his final year to a sophomore goalie.
But then a few days later, this was published on the City Pages blog:
Regardless of anything he may have accomplished on the ice, Austin Krause’s high school hockey career will undoubtedly be best remembered for the way he screwed over his own team at the end of his Senior Night game last night.
Krause, a senior at Farmington High school, tied the game with three minutes left by intentionally scoring in his own net, then flipped the bird to his bench and skated off the ice
A report in the Farmington Independent shares a Facebook post Krause published after the game. Here it is:
They played this sophomore goalie for the starter, he was terrible, I would try and talk to the coaches about this and tell them I want playing time but they never really listen to me or gave me a chance to show them that I’m a better goalie but still wouldn’t trust me so I had it it with I asked a few of my players if they care if I did it and they didn’t care they thought it would be funny so at the third period they dumped it in I stopped it put in my net started to skate off then flicked the coaches not the team the coaches then I saluted them then got off.
My hockey season is over. I did it for myself. [Like my status] if you think the coaches should quit:)One parent quoted in the Independent report says Krause “got the shaft,” as coaches this season played younger players in preparation for the team’s debut in the South Suburban Conference next year. But the stats don’t show that Krause was clearly superior to his sophomore competition. From the Independent:
Krause played 492 minutes in goal this season and had a record of 5-4-1 as the starter. His goals-against average was 2.8 and he stopped 87.7 percent of opponents’ shots. Sophomore Gage Overby has logged about 548 minutes while earning a 5-5 record, a 2.42 goals-against average and a 90.1 save percentage.
Then comes this from today’s Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
A video, reportedly shot by a friend who was told to be ready during the game, shows Krause removing his hockey gloves, thrusting his hands overhead and pointing his middle finger at his team’s bench.
It’s one thing when it happens by mistake. But when Farmington senior goaltender Austin Krause slid the puck into his own team’s net Tuesday night against Chaska, he did it on purpose. It tied the game and contributed to an eventual defeat on a night dedicated to the team’s seniors.
But he wasn’t done. As Krause skated off the home team ice, he tossed off a glove and thrust an obscene gesture toward his team bench, in apparent defiance of his coaches in a dispute about playing time.
It was all recorded on video by a classmate, apparently at Krause’s urging, and it ignited the Internet on Wednesday with one of the strangest Minnesota hockey stories to emerge in years.
The Farmington School District was not pleased. By mid-afternoon a spokesman said Krause was no longer on the team.
The district said in a statement that the incident was “shared widely on the Internet,” where the original video drew thousands of page views before it was taken off YouTube. Copies of it continued to surface throughout the day. The story raced to the most-read spot on websites, including Deadspin, and set off comment streams that alternately vilified the act and lauded the player for speaking his mind.
The episode “has had an immediate and dramatic impact on the Farmington boys’ hockey team and the entire Farmington community,’’ the statement said. “The district is taking the proper steps to investigate the incident and will take appropriate action in line with school policy.’’
Messages left at what was believed to be Krause’s home were not answered. A Twitter account in his name includes a posting Wednesday about him receiving a 10-day suspension, although it does not specify what from. Another says, “Thanks to everyone for being there, I think the coaches are dumbfounded on what happen:)’’
On a Facebook page in Krause’s name, there are indications that he was unhappy with his coaches about his playing time and had discussed his goal-making plans with teammates ahead of time.
The 13-second video shows Krause retrieving a puck behind his net, skating to the crease while “pushing the puck into the Farmington net and then leaving the game with a show of unsportsmanlike gestures,’’ the district statement said.
The video shows Krause removing a hockey glove, thrusting his right hand overhead and pointing his middle finger at his team’s bench, then skating off the ice through an open door near a corner of the rink.
The mother of a Farmington student who filmed the incident said her son was told by Krause to “have your phone ready’’ at the game. Jodi Kelly said her son, Alex, was told by Krause, “I want you to do this for me.”
Kelly said school administrators called her Wednesday morning and asked that the video be taken down, which the family did. She said her son is not a member of the hockey team.
“We’ve heard there has been some drama within the team the entire season. So in [Alex’s] mind, he was being a loyal friend to a friend who felt he was wronged,” Kelly said. “As a parent you’re torn. I wish he wouldn’t have shared the video. There are more productive ways this situation could have been handled. It’s unfortunate.”
Farmington was leading Chaska 2-1 with 3:13 left in the game when Krause scored. Chaska scored again less than a minute later and won 3-2.
Chaska coach Dave Snuggerud said, “What I saw is what everyone else saw. It’s unfortunate. I talked to my players right after the game about what’s important in life. It’s not a hockey game on Feb. 12, it’s about playing the game with character.”
Jim Skelly, the Farmington district’s communications and marketing coordinator, said in an interview that Krause “will no longer be a member of the team” but did not specify if he quit or was dismissed.
Uhh, this Skelly guy must be the only guy in the world who didn’t figure out that Krause quit the team pretty much about the time he gave the single-finger salute. Realistically, this could have been the teen-angst, alternative ending to Ned Braden’s strip-tease from Slap Shot.
What you don’t know is that in the pinnacle of irony, this story was forwarded to us by Dick Marple, the Chairman of the Dubsism Advisory Board, who hates hockey more than he hates Richard Nixon and onions combined.
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I was a hockey fan at the U of M back in the stone age. Also used to love the MN State Hockey Tournament, before it got dominated by suburban schools who played and practiced INDOORS, unlike the northern MN schools. I would rather eat a puck smothered in onions than say a kind word about any Milhouse not named Van Houten.
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Boys will be boys. What a circus. I wonder if we would have had all these theatrics without the social media outlet he craved to be a part of it? Regardless, yet another inspirational tale from the world of high school sports.
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Hey, man.
The Capitals were in town the other night and I saw Ovechken at a local bar.
Big fucker.
He sends his regards.
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He would still be no match for the Hanson Brothers.
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